Friday, June 5, 2015

Rolls-Royce Phantom II 1934 of Maharaja Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla now in the Mewar royal cars collection

A
Rajpipla Rolls-Royce that is still very much in evidence in India is the
Phantom II 1934, chassis no. 181 RY, engine no. TT 65, Windovers sedanca de ville design no. 6168. It is mentioned in the book "The History
of Windovers" (though the caption says chassis no. 181R4).

The 6th Earl of Portarlington, Lionel
Arthur Henry Seymour Dawson-Damer (1883-1959) was a director of Windovers and
originally used it as a demonstration car. Maharaja Vijaysinhji shipped this
car to India. It
was driven mainly between Rajpipla, Bombay, Poona and surrounding areas for two
decades.

Thereafter
it went to Kolhapur, and was with M. Apte in Bombay for some time. It is now in the Mewar royal cars collection
at Udaipur and was featured in the 13th James Bond movie ‘Octopussy’
in 1982. In the same year it featured in episode
4 of the television series ‘The Jewel in the Crown’ which was also largely
filmed in Udaipur, showing the car registered ‘Mirat 1’.

I
had the great pleasure of looking closely in early 2014 at this wonderful
car, formerly owned by my grandfather. Mechanical restoration has been carried
out in recent years. The interiors are to be refurbished soon to a standard
befitting a Rolls-Royce. The exterior is in prime condition, still carrying the
original coat of paint.

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About Me

Scion of the princely house of Rajpipla, now in the province of Gujarat, India, and descendant of the ancient Gohil Rajput dynasty, Indra Vikram Singh is a sportsman, entrepreneur, writer, author, editor and publisher. He is author of 'Test Cricket - End of the Road?' (1992), 'World Cup Cricket' (2002), 'The Little Big Book of World Cup Cricket' (2007 and 2011 editions), 'The Big Book of World Cup Cricket' (2011), 'A Maharaja's Turf' (2011) on the triumph of his grandfather Maharaja Sir Vijaysinhji of Rajpipla in the Epsom Derby of England in 1934, 'Don's Century' (2011) which is a biography of Don Bradman and a panorama of batting from the 1860s to the present times, and 'Crowning Glory' (2011) and 'Indian Spring' (2015), both on India's triumph in the ICC World Cup 2011. A talented allround cricketer, he captained teams of both his school and college. He was the moving force behind the setting up of sports complexes in Delhi in the latter part of the 1980s and early 1990s, and is now setting up a heritage resort.